Mental Health & Magic: Juju Webseries, To Tap In Or Tap Out?

Transcript:

Hi, my name is Eboni Esra and I'm here to talk to you about mental health and magic today. So the reason why I started this series was I noticed a lot of television shows and movies didn't necessarily put people with mental health struggles in the world and fantasy worlds in the best light. Oftentimes people would go, I don't know if this is a trope you've ever seen, but. You don't have depression. You have this magical ability and This is why you're dealing with a blah, blah, blah, which as some of a bipolar disorder, you know, sometimes I wake up and wish that there was someone who just yanked me up for my sleep and be like Ya ain't bipolar ***** you're magical, you know? That'd be great. But I I think that that line of thinking can be kind of dangerous and not helpful. And I also think that it creates a paradigm in which one has to either be dealing with mental health struggles or

be in the world in a magical, mystical type of vibe. And as someone who is spiritual, I believe you can, you can have both. You can have both. And I think there's ways in which you can, you know? Like, for example, I'm on medication, but I meditate, You know, I pray when I can pray. I have my rituals. You know, I got my books and all that jazz. And so I personally believe that there's room for both. There's space for both. And so each episode I go around and essentially talk about a television show or a movie or short or whatever that focuses on. Mental health and magic.

I also add in the perspective like of a numerology in there. So sometimes I'll also add in like, you know, explanations of like, oh, This is why this is this type of energy that's found in numerology or astrology because why not? I love numerology. I study it. I give people readings and so. I figured I can also use that to study TV shows as well. So this TV show that we're going to be talking about today is called Juju Juju Miniseries. It follows the lives of three Caribbean women or Caribbean women. I don't know. I don't know what to say. Caribbean.

I said it like that. I'm so sorry. I'm so tired. This is after work. So it follows the lives of three Caribbean women, and they're coming of age. They are older. But like I'm going to call it coming of age because we have many life stages in which we come of age. I don't believe that coming of age is only for the teenagers. You can come of age in your 20s. You come in come of age in your 30s, forties, forties, 50s, sixties, sixties, 70s, eighties, eighties, Hell, the day before you die, you can have a coming of age moment.

But I mean, I know originally what coming of age usually typically does follow teenagers, but for the sake of this, I'm going to call it coming of age.

But yeah, so we're going to go over episodes one through 4.

Episode one.

So episode one starts off with us being introduced to each of the women, right? And

well, each of the women. And

I'll call her an Enchantress. She's not Enchantress, isn't probably is not the right word for her, but. For the sake of today, I'm going to call her an enchantious because this is episode one. We don't know much about her. We just know that she's this mysterious woman. OK, So it starts off with, you know, this woman saying, hey, do you know where to go? You know, where I can find this place, you know? And she gives her this very, you know, kind of otherworldly answer in my opinion. Which kind of had me like, ooh, what's she talking about? You know, she's not my father, ancestors. What's she talk about, you know?

And then she enters the home and there's the, you know, that's where we get introduced to our main characters. And so we have our mean girl, our resident mean girl, Gigi. She's like, her first reaction is basically. We also introduced to ya, ya who? Ya, ya. It's kind of like she's like the sweet one of the group, you know what I mean? She's definitely the sweet one. She immediately tries to solve the problem that is Gigi's meanness by, you know, complimenting the woman and noting that she knows what type of crystal that she's wearing. We also quickly learned that Gigi. Is somewhat of a social media socialite or something right, that she does some type of work on social media because you know they're like, oh, this must be one of your followers And the way that she treats her potential followers kind of like damn girl like who hurts you. But but you know I I'm attracted to Mean Girls. So I feel like a lot of people are. I'm not. Well, I'm not that attracted to them. I'm not. I'm not that attracted them, but but she reminds me of Tony from girlfriends. I don't know why, but she just does

in a way she does. I don't know if that was purposeful. They probably weren't even thinking of Tony from girlfriends, but she gives me that vibe, that mean girl vibe

and so yeah, so then you know. They also are annoyed. I will say to their credit, they are annoyed because they think that their friend that were later introduced to Ally they think that that she's home and it's supposed to be a birthday party for her. So, you know, when they try to surprise her and find out somebody else, you know, they're kind of like oh whatever.

So we're immediately you know. We have this mysterious woman, this Enchantress, who I call. You'll see why I call her an Enchantress. Later, I would call her Voodoo Priestess because of certain things that she does. But as far as episode one, we aren't supposed to know much about what's going on. I mean, we know. I mean, I we know. Like, you know, but we don't know. We don't know. In terms of the beginning of episode one, as far as episode one goes, as far as we know up to this point, we don't know that she even knows any magic. We just know that this woman gave some weird *** answer to this woman in terms of how she can find directions. And I'm not saying that it's weird to follow your ancestors. I'm saying it's weird in this world because it's set in on Earth in the present day or a few years ago. It's set in. This very real materialistic world, right? And so in a real, real quotations materialistic world, you know someone saying, hey, where can I go find this? And someone saying follow the North star of trances is like ***** what

what? Where am I supposed to go? And it it also cracks me up because I believe it's like a white woman who asked.

I'm not saying that you can't follow your ancestors, OK, If you like. I'm just saying I had a moment when I said I had a moment when she said that, and I actually have a reaction video where I'm barely reacting. It's not really that entertaining, but it's me eating gumbo and cornbread and Peach cobbler while I watch this show. Yeah. And so back, back to the plotline, we then. Cut to this random this, this couple, you know, we don't know what's going on. This couple is like walking around or whatever. And I'm not gonna give away. I'm not gonna go like play by play of the TV show because I don't wanna give everything away. I want you to watch it too. But I'm just pointing out little things that like show. Character development, right. And show the world that they live in.

So you know, it cuts to this, you know, couple. Then this white woman shows up and I wonder if the race of this evil woman was purposeful because

because you know. We live in a colonized society, you know, in a colonized country. And it is interesting to me that they chose this white woman to be the evil. You know that the evil antagonist, because she brainwashes this man, takes him to the party and tries to do harm. To to Aleha Ali, otherwise known as Ali and the rest of the girls on her birthday though. And it's like, damn, like on her birthday.

Ali is turning 28 the way. And as someone who turned 28 year

feels, feels.

We also learned that the mysterious woman in this episode is, you know, a priestess, and she takes her job very seriously. She goes, as far as, you know, doing something, and I'm not going to give it away because I want you to watch the show. She does something that some people of some religions, you know, some spaces, might view as bad, as evil. However, in this case, it was a means to an end. And that end was protecting Aleha, protecting Gigi, protecting Yaya, Kim and the rest of the people at that party, but especially the girls, especially the women that you know that we're following in this show. And then the next day, you know, the women, you know, they wake up. To this priestess telling them that they're magical and ya ya of the group, the sweet one of the group by the way, and we we learn more of more of ya, ya sweetness, but we we ya ya ya ya was with the *****. Though ya ya was ready to take this priestess out. She was not asking no questions. And then ya ya has a moment where you know. Magical happens, you know, she starts, you know, doing some stuff that's quite magical. She is doesn't realize that, I don't think at this point, but reading she reads Gigi's mind and then she reads everyone's mind in the room, say for the pieces,

who then like does some whole juju that's like throws throws all the women off. You know, and so just to recap episode one,

you know, we find out a bit about the girls. We also learned that Ali is a workaholic, you know, and that she has a hard time believing in herself and her friends, you know, they express their wishes that she could believe in herself more, you know. And so we kind of learn a bit about the friends they're comfortable enough to like. Do things that some people would say is like beyond Platonic. I mean, we don't know if it's a joke or not that Gigi makes or if it's serious. Again, watch the show because I don't want to give too much away. It's so hard. It's like I want to tell you everything. I hope that despite me telling you things about the show, that you still watch the show because it is quite interesting of a show and it is really nice to see a show of black women, you know, practicing magic. And so, yeah, So just to recap episode one, in terms of the mental health of magic, you know, in terms of analyzing it from that perspective, we learned that Ali,

her mental health, is probably not in the best place because she's frazzled. She's coming home late to her own birthday party. I don't think she knew she had a birthday party, but she's coming home late on the day of her birthday from work. And it's realized that she probably didn't even tell them that it was her birthday. And it's like, you know, what kind of workspace are you working for if you can't even tell people it's your birthday. You know, unless you know, maybe you don't like your birthdays, but it it doesn't seem like Ali doesn't like her birthday. It seems like you know, just based on what her friends are saying, that she doesn't necessarily work for the best place. So she might not have her her mental health, you know, all together.

We learn that Gigi is she's got a soft spot somewhere, you know. We know that mentally not is all. It's not all that it seems right? Like she has a mentally like she's got a hard shell, a hard outer shell. But there's got to be some sensitivity there. One because she's managed to have these close friendships. So you know. I don't see how you can have a close friend and not be opening up and not be connected somehow. I mean, you know, I'm only saying they're close because certain things that kind of reveal their closeness.

And ya ya, we don't really learn as much about ya ya besides the fact that she's really sweet and accommodating.

But we do know that ya ya is. Out of all the three, probably the most spiritual in terms of like her practice because you know, she's got the crystal, she's recognizing the crystal like she she's she's doing some type of work to recognize, you know, her spirituality, not saying the other women aren't. But out of the three, it seems like on the surface ya ya is the one that is the most, at least. Connected in terms of understanding certain concepts or understanding certain aspects of spirituality that might come into play, like, you know, knowing your crystals and things like that, right?

Episode 2.

Fast forward to episode 2, you know the three women are talking. And this is like a pretty quick series, like the episodes are about 15 minutes long, like they're pretty short, but you get a lot within each episode and so. That's what next morning the three women are talking and ya, ya was like, yo, we've got to, we've got to figure this out. Like, we got to figure this out. Gigi's just kind of listening. And Allie is like,

what are you talking about? Like,

girl, girl shit's fake. And I'm not gonna lie. When Allie was like, shit's fake, I was like, Allie. After what you just saw, after what you just saw, do

you think there's fake? That's when I knew Ali's mental,

because it had me like that. Reminds me of a person. Bipolar disorder. As someone with bipolar disorder, who sees the hallucination and who's like, Nah, Nah, it's fake. Out of sheer need to stay, to stay sane. That's what it made me think of. So I hoping wishing the best for Ally. You know, wishing the best for Ally. Because I don't know how she could be like a magic ain't real. After seeing what she saw in the first episode again, watch the episode to see what she saw. And you come back to me and you tell me whether you be like, that shit's fake power. It was just pyrotechnics. It was just hydraulics, you know? It was just like, I don't know, she's like shit's fake. And then she makes some comment about how, you know, she's got to get to her job and she's she, unlike Gigi and ya, ya got people to answer to yadda, yadda, yadda. And I was like, ooh, ooh, that's a little, that's

a little cutting, you know, that's a little cutting to say to your friends, Ally. So I was like, OK, Ally very much, you know, if we're talking about the world. That each of these characters live in individually, Ali very much I would say as ya. Ya seems to be the most spiritual because she's the most ready to believe. You know she is the ready, she's ready to believe.

But Ali is so like she's in the concrete world like she is just like. No, you know, just no, just no Brick wall and Gigi's like, OK, all right, sure, sure, Like, so I don't really have a good read on Gigi because in terms of that because Gigi again, it's hard show, hard show.

But but but because of that, it makes me so curious to learn more about Gigi. Because I'm like, what if there's something about Gigi that I'm missing, You know, by Episode 2, you know, and we'll learn more about Gigi later. But as far as episode two goes, you know, this is what we get. This is what we get.

So, yeah, so then, you know, we soon realize that the episode is going to be focusing on Ally because we follow Ally on her way to work. And she heads to work. She sits down. She's typing, typing, typing. And then **** laptop, you know, desktop is all messed up or whatever. In comes her friend. And again, we're quickly reminded that Ali sells herself short. And this is where it gets interesting. Now this I will say, because it had me like, girl, ain't we all been there. She has a moment. Where after realizing that she is being passed up for a promotion again for some Jake, some random *** Jake,

her boss is like, drop down these notes for me. Drop down these notes for me, Hey, hey, drop down these notes for me. Drop down these notes for me. And she's like, OK, whatever. So yeah. So then we get to this point where he's jotting down and he is just going in, he not taking a break, he's stressing her out and she's like, bro, we should just choke and this start choking. And I was like, damn Ali,

yeah, it

was giving me the craft. It was giving me the craft like I was like, oh ****. Oh **** she's taking him out. I mean, she wasn't maliciously. I don't think she's maliciously like die, die. But also this man is a whole white man. I don't know why I'm calling him, but like, but yeah, you know, he starts choking and she's

like, apologizing, whatever. And he's like, why are you sorry? Like you didn't do anything And then like. That's when everybody like looks side to side, you know, together as you watch the show, you're like

and so you would think that, you know, after what happened last night with and then the next morning with Ali and you know,

yeah, like you would think after that and then after making her boss choked, she'd be like Shum. Ain't right. Shopping is different about my life. OK, but no, she she's like, hey, guys, home. She heads, you know, she's heading home. She goes to the coffee shop. That's why we see evil white woman again. Trying to poison Allie again like she is just after you go. She wants to see her win. And that's when we also run into the priestess again. And you know, Allie has a whole moment. Where she's testing out her powers, the priestess shows up and then she tells the priestess, Girl, I don't believe you, girl, I don't trust you. And OK, I will say, to Ali's credit, she does say we don't know you, we don't know you. OK, so I can see why Ali is in disbelief because there is a random woman, you know, that's a trope. OK, Because let's let's be real. It is a trope that. You know, let's say YA, novel, right? Main characters just living their life, whatever, Yadda yadda yadda. The mysterious person shows up and they're like, guess what? *****? Which *****? Which *****.

Get it, Get it? OK. And then the main characters, like, Oh yeah, Oh yeah, and like they're just like going with it and **** like. That used to annoy me growing up because I'd be like yo like if someone random person came up to me was like ***** your magical one. Part of me as someone who loves fantasy and all that would be like, Oh my God, for real, For real. So

that's all My life sucks.

But the other part of me would be like stranger danger. I don't know you, please leave me alone so I understand Ali's perspective to a degree. But I don't understand why she doesn't believe in the magic, right? Because it's like

you were just making people do stuff. You just saw this other thing happen that morning.

Either you magic or or you're having hallucinations like something is happening here. Like that is where I'm like as someone bipolar disorder, if that was happening to me. As spiritual as I am, I would probably, I guess I'm very different than Ali, right? I would probably.

I'd probably talk to my doctor. I'd probably like, can you up my dose of Abella. Hi. Something's not right. Miss Dominguez. That's my

OK. But but that being said, you know, the priestess backs off. She's like, all right, all right. And then we learn. Just why Ally just might not, you know, want to want to believe, you know, because I started thinking, does she not want to believe in the magic? You know, do you believe in magic And a young girl's heart?

OK, I'm like, why don't you want to believe in the magic, Ally? And then we learn, you know, because I forgot to mention something. Before we go into the Do you believe in Magic Alley? She does briefly mention before she heads off to work and before she makes that cutting statement, she does mention if magic was real, my grandmother wouldn't have died of cancer. I'm paraphrasing. She says it a little bit differently, but you know, But even then I was like, OK, well why don't you believe? Because you just saw a bunch of **** that just happened, right? But then you know when she sits, when she has that moment. Where she sits down in her house, pulls out this box and it's stuff of her grandmother's and she, you know, gingerly like caresses. The photo of her grandmother. I'm like, OK, all right, you got me, you got me emotional. Now I can see why she doesn't want to believe in the magic. Because to her point, if magic was real.

Why is her grandmother not alive? Now, I know that spiritual practices often have answers to stuff like that. Religions often have stuff. Sorry, Hiccup. Religions often have answers to stuff like that. But when you're living in the world, you know, like, and this dog eat dog and you don't always feel like you have the time to believe in magic. You know what I mean? Like. And that wishful you know you don't. You don't want to fall into wishful thinking.

And so, you know, Ali kind of has to wonder, like, why is my grandmother gone? If this is real? I'm wondering, you know, I wonder if she's wondering, can I bring her back, You know, because as someone who's lost, you know, grandparents, you know, only one of my grandparents is still alive. There are times where I felt very angry too, you know, like and felt. Like, the world became much, much more real when, you know, like the world becomes much, much real for some people when they lose a loved one. Like, suddenly the concrete feels a little harder, the air feels a little harsher, and the weather is just a lot less friendly, and the world is just a lot less friendly, you know? And so that's where we end. Episode 2.

Episode 3.

So here we are at episode 3 and we quickly realized that this episode is going to focus on ya Ya now, ya ya doesn't have that much of a great day. It starts off with her trying to talk to Ally and Ally kind of blows her off and she has sucks to Gigi. Just like sure, whatever you know, sure, whatever.

She think it's bumped into and she wonders if she's invisible. Now I only am explaining the beginning of this episode because I feel like the beginning of this episode is very indicative of how the rest of her day is going to go, where she just feels like people don't respect her, don't care about her well-being.

She arrives at the workplace that she works at. It's a plant shop and it's it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I think it really captures the essence of ya. Ya, I think they did a really good job. On a random note, I think they did a really good job of so far showing each of the characters personality. And their connection to the world through their work that they do.

So we see ya, ya, you know, working. And she has this friend Coop who's like, hey, what's wrong? What's wrong? And he seems genuinely concerned at first, but then as she actually, when she actually decides to try to talk to him, he gets distracted by this woman. He's into and he hears. She hears his inner thoughts which I ooh if I was trying to open up to somebody and then I realized that they weren't even listening based on their inner thoughts like like you know those thoughts are factual. I'll be hurt I'll be hurt. So she's hello hurt you know

and prior to her on her way to work because she's already frustrated. Right. Because she's gotten bumped into, she's on the train before she gets to work because you know, that's how she gets to work. I'm assuming this is on the East Coast. So she's on the subway and she's hearing everybody's thoughts only to show up to the plant shop, right? This is the back story, only to show up to the plant shop, finally feel like she can talk to somebody and then the person's not even listening, but she has to listen to everyone. She doesn't know how to control these powers, right? She's listening to everyone.

That's gotta feel, that's gotta feel weird, you know, like mentally we if we want to get into the mental health aspect of Ally, right? Not Ally. Ya ya right now, mentally she ain't doing too hot, right? So we see Ally in the last episode struggling with, you know, the death of her grandmother. And this being confronted with the potential magicalness of the world in a world that's very concrete to her now that her grandmother has died. Then we have Yaya, who's a lot more spiritual. She's a lot more ready to believe in the magic, but

she doesn't feel appreciated. She doesn't feel seen. She's having to know so much of the world, and yet the world doesn't regard her as a black woman. You know, I'm sure that that layer is probably there as well. We see that with Eleha but Ali. With Eleha, with Ali. But we don't. But with ya. Ya, everybody in the space is black.

But. And I don't know how this works on the East Coast 'cause I've never been to like the northeast coast. But I just wonder what the dynamic is like. Like if it's a genderized issue that ya ya's dealing with or if it's just a person to person issue. If like, maybe because of how her personality is set up, people often don't think that she needs to be regarded like Oh yeah, that's fine ya ya's fine. You know, and it's like no, ya ya is not fine ya ya is stressed the **** out. Yaga. I feel like she, you know, she doesn't. It doesn't seem like she thinks that she's going crazy necessarily, but she knows of something, right? In terms of like obviously she's got to find a way to cope and so she uses meditation, a guided meditation to cope. And I like that they put this in the show because even if you're not Yaya who can read people's thoughts, you might feel like sometimes the world is just caving in on you. And so meditation is a great way to, you know, be present in yourself and your body in the moment and. Peace out, I use meditation. I don't meditate as often as I would like but it has helped me. For people that struggle with self-guided meditations I would recommend on a random note I would recommend guided meditations on YouTube which is what I believe ya ya uses actually in the episode

she goes to YouTube and uses like a guided meditation video to focus.

So I thought that was interesting. But back to the store at the end of the day, you know, Yaya's friend Coop and his crush who also works there, they head out of the store only for Kim. So Kim we're introduced to in episode one. I'm not going to explain what happens to Kim because I don't want to give away something that I said I wasn't going to give away earlier, but. I just know that Kim is the friend of the three women, and she also encounters the priestess, the Enchantress. And you know she she mentions something about the priestess that kind of throws Yaya off, but to the point where she actually responds to her and. This is her inner thoughts that she thinks of the priestess in. So she's like, wait, did I say that out loud? You know, And Yaya was like, yeah, girl,

she played that all smooth. She's lucky that Kim was in the state that she's in. And so we also quickly learned that Yaya provides

like remedies to people because she provides her primrose oil and a couple other things to help with Kim's state. And so you know, ya ya you know, I don't know all the all the women I'm like, OK, ya ya like ya is already kind of doing the work you know. And so I'm curious. My thought is like why didn't, as Kim puts it, Miss Cleo lady. Why didn't the priestess go to Yaya first and not Alley? I thought that was interesting that she went to Alley first, because out of all the three alleys is like the least open to any of this. But maybe you know, she don't know. She don't know them, like she she knows of them, she knows them, but she don't know them. You know she don't know them. So maybe that's why she doesn't approach Yaya first.

So then, you know, we find Yaya meditating on the subway, thinking over the past few days when she runs into another client of hers and she offers to give him, you know, a remedy only to be called a demon *****. And I was like, oh God, like I won't be scared because, like, she's on the subway and the way that they shot this. It already seems scary because like the lighting the colors involves got this like dark blue grayish color going on and she is presumably by herself in the subway car, which by the way, that is terrifying. That is terrifying to be on a subway car by yourself in the dark. I don't know, maybe I've seen too many. I've seen so many horror movies where just bad **** happens on the subway when you're on the subway car by yourself in the dark. And so you know, he starts acting weird with her and she's like responding to him. Like, what are you talking about? You know, she grabs him and then she hears his inner thoughts and he's like run OK? So she obviously gets off, has to walk hella far to get home, and then runs into the priestess, only for the priestess to start asking her for favors. Now if someone was asking me for favors after a long *** day, I'd be like **** oh, which, you know, obviously choose compassion,

like choose to be understanding is what I try to tell myself these days. Because you know, people still need help and you know if they're coming to you, there's a reason for that, you know? And it's not always because they don't like you or respect you, whatever. Sometimes people just really need help. But that being said this woman don't know her so just imagine someone like that don't know you but has been like popping up in your life trying to tell you that you're a witch telling you hey I need you to do this I need you to do that. Like you know she's like

excuse me that's when we also learned that ya ya's full name is is Ayanna Dixon which I think is pretty pretty name.

Aleha is too. And I'm It makes me it didn't. It just made me curious like, ooh, what Gigi's, you know, Gigi's government name? Because when she start calling by that government name each time, they're like, how the hell do you know my name? You know? So she agrees with the priestess to gather the women the next night. The priestess is like, yo, you really need to get your girl Gigi, because she is.

She she about to Bob out, like she about to do something that Shane's supposed to be doing OK, which having like loom for showering what she about to do, what she about to do. And so yeah, but yeah, just to go for Yaya story, we see a lot of moments where Yaya is mistreated and Despite that, Yaya doesn't. And she gets frustrated for sure, but she doesn't respond cruelly. She's just tired, you know, She's just fed up and tired. And, you know, she's tired of being the strong one. She's a strong friend, you know. So I'm really curious in future episodes how they're going to, you know, we're going to go over this, how they're going to develop that and ya, ya like. Is she going to transform? Are we going to see some balancing out of power dynamics? Are we going to see ya, ya get her break that she needs? Will she be able to control her powers of reading minds? Will she be able to direct her thoughts to people? That was the thought that I had was ooh, because at this point, she's receiving and she's just receiving. She's in a point, a moment of surrender, basically. But I wonder if she'll ever be able to use a more externalized energy, you know, instead of internalized like receiving, like giving, you know? So that's how we end Episode 3.

Episode 4.

So on to episode four. We are quickly shown that this episode is going to be about Gigi. Gigi wakes up to Kyle telling her she doesn't need to hide her hoes when she quickly tries to text what she calls Lawyer BAE, who she calls Lawyer BAE,

who seems really sweet from the text. Like he seems like a sweet guy.

And Kyle was like, ohh, what are we? Let's be more than friends, let's be more than friends. And Gigi just enchants him like no hesitation, no confusion on her part on what to do. She just does it. And her powers are reminiscent of what the evil white lady was doing. Also, I just want to clarify, I do not think that white people are evil, Okay. It's just the lady, it's the cast is primarily black, right? Like all the cast we've seen is black. And then we have this like one person that's evil and she white. So

I don't, again, I don't know that was purposeful, but it had me cracking up. Haven't cracked it up only because, you know, I was like, damn, like he white lady.

She played a part, though. She did play a part.

But yeah, she enchants Kyle. And you know, we later realized that she's still dealing with this, the trolls online, specifically this hotel that's like. The women wearing blonde wigs, you know, I'm just saying **** like that. And she's like, you know, going back and forth with him on what seems like it's supposed to be like Twitter or something. I I need to look back at the clip to see exactly what social media site she was on. But, you know, it seemed like it was like a Twitter type of thing or Facebook type of thing.

But then, yeah, so Kyle walks out the house without no damn clothes on. And Aleja is like, what you doing? Why are you you know, they have a moment where he's like, I don't know, like he's like under a trance. And I was like, damn, the powers be strong, Gigi, because this man literally about to walk at the house with just his drawers on because you told him to.

So you know her and Aleja have to talk about Kyle and it seems like. Everybody wants her to get with Kyle. Now if we go back to episode one. I didn't mention this in episode one, the section, but

I you know Gigi has like this hard show, right? And she has a moment where it seems like she gets a little soft when ya ya asks her. You know, what about Kyle? But now that we see her with Kyle, I'm like,

maybe not herself Spot. I don't know, like I thought that he would be herself Spot. Maybe he is and we'll see more of it. But as far as we know now, Kyle is just one of her hoes, you know?

Her and Aleja also talk about magic. And Aleja is like, she's like, I don't believe in that ****. I'm like, girl, I've done everything you're saying and then and then I just get back to the grandmother scene, you know? But yeah, Gigi is like, I believe in it. I believe in it. I'm down for it, like. You know, we quickly learned that Gigi also is kind of down for it. I just think the way that she responds to it is different than the way that ya, ya responded to it. Like, I think Yaga's like, we gotta figure this out, We gotta figure this out. Gigi's like, I already figured this out. I already know how to use it. I'm good. Which is fascinating to me because it makes me wonder. More about Gigi's character because we Gigi's the last one of the three to get her storyline. So yeah. So she breaks the 4th wall, which is another thing I thought was interesting. Out of all the characters so far, I think she's the only one to break the 4th wall and so she's like the bad is which you know and I was like OK, OK and she almost enchants the viewer because the way that they. Kind of show like the camera moving and the music that's playing and the fact that it gets all blurry, it almost feels like they are saying like oh, she's enchanting you now, so she gets ready for this party. You know, she's getting ready, getting ready. And when she's at the party immediately a bunch of guys just like like I don't know what sound that was supposed to be, but they they hover over her. And like, they are all immediately enchanted by her. And so I'm thinking, oh girl, girl, using your powers, get the Mans, which,

you know there's there's I can see why the priestess is worried because there are

things, bad things that can happen when you put people under love like spells. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. That's what she's doing. But this could go terribly wrong because the men are obsessed with her and obsession can go left because obsession can go left real real quick. And it also was just giving me the crowd virus because it was just like it reminded me of a scene in The Craft where someone gets a man, gets enchanted in a similar way and things go left. But anyway, at this party. She runs into Lawyer Bay and she also enchants Lawyer Bay and all these men. She's taking their drinks, chilling everything and and then you know she gets, she gets she has a run in with the hotel dude. Hotel dude is not enchanted by her. So I was like, Oh well hotel dude might know some magic and so.

What type dude might be honest to something you know

and she breaks the 4th wall again as well to at the party which I find like because we'll get more into it after I go over each episode. But I think it's very important to note that she breaks the 4th wall multiple times and what her powers can do. So yeah as she confronts whole type guy. He's telling her like you a bed winch. You are this, you are that and I'm like what is he talking about? Because mind you, dating a white person does not make you a bed winch inherently. OK? And also I wouldn't be calling people a bed winch. Like even if someone, even if someone was dating a white person, even if they had internalized, you know, obvious internalized, you know anti blackness in them even if they. Did a bunch of that was like, OK, that's problematic. To call someone a bed winch, honestly is like, in my opinion worse than calling them a **** because calling somebody a bed winch is like,

it's well, I don't want to say it's worse but I feel like **** bed winch, like those words are very. There's this FD signifier video that talks about this and I I think that they and the people that they had on with them to talk about it they they all kind of explained in their own way really well why it. I mean there was one guy where I was like OK but but other than that other than that I think they explained really well why **** is just such a. That's a word that you know, you reserve for somebody that you really just don't have any respect for. And I think bed winch to me, for black femmes is like the worst thing that you can call black femme, Like, in my opinion, like a bed winch, because it's just like you're basically saying that you are so. Degraded that like you just don't like value as a person that that's how I read that term. Now I know that some people can mean it in the way that they mean **** where someone's acting in an anti black way, but it's got this layer of you know sexuality to it where you're basically saying that essentially you know it's very. I don't want to say it's anti sex positive because it's not. It's if you know what bed winch means, OK, you I think you understand. But for those that don't know what bed winch means, Bed winch is basically saying you lay down for Massa at night. OK, you lay down at Massa at night. It is. You'd be better off calling someone a sellout. I think sellout would be a better way of

calling someone who like does something that,

you know,

I don't know, it was it was just hard. It was hard to hear that, not for me, but it was hard because it was like you could tell that Gigi was like hurt and you know. Wictionary.org says it's someone that dates, you know, white people often accused of seeking privilege privileges.

But

you know it. Gosh, because it's it's tied to, like trafficking, essentially. Like sex trafficking. Like, it's not really a good term. I know I'm spending a lot of time on this, but I'm spending a lot of time on this because Gigi. Strongly reacts to this, like she strongly reacts to this. And she strongly reacts to this by enchanting the entire room and enchanting the hotel. And I'm calling him a hotel cuz that's what she called him. She called him a hotel. I'm pretty sure somebody else calls him. I think Aleha Ali calls him a hotel too,

but yeah, so. And Gigi's at this party by herself. She's, for context, she's not here with Aleja, she's not here with Yaya Kim, none of them. But she does have a friend that she meets there earlier. We don't know how close she and this friend are, but essentially, you know, she enchants the hotel, she enchants the room and she tells

the hotel to do some things that.

Are are also up there. You know, I don't want to spoil it, but are also up there in terms of things that people could say. You know, you don't say that to somebody, you just you just don't say that to somebody let alone command someone to act out in certain ways. It it was intense this episode. It went from party centric. You know, and

kind of ethereal and like, I don't know, it went from that to like very intense, real fast. And then, you know, we see the priestess come in and the priestess, you know, that's her little snap thing where the room, you know, kind of stops being enchanted and she drags out Gigi and she's like, Gigi, what the hell? Like, you know, you're not mortal. Alcohol is not good for you, like. And she's, you know, not good for which, not just not good for her, but not good for which, which you know, I think is important to know. I wonder how much alcohol is going to play a part in Gigi's transformation. Like is she going to continue to drink? Is she going to, you know, take the warning that was given to her. Is she going to, you know, go straight edge, you know, not drink at all or nothing like that?

I'm curious. I'm also curious because Gigi so far has had a shell. A hard shell. But this hotel really got to her and it has been noted in previous episodes that Gigi to some degree might seem to care about what these people online think. Even though she has this. I don't give a **** attitude. So, so I wasn't surprised that she clapped back to the guy because she clapped back at somebody in the first episode. But I was surprised at how far she went because it was like, damn, like, you know, maybe Gigi doesn't have as hard of a show as we think. And this hard show is just for, you know, just persona to protect herself. After the priestess leaves, she later runs into this guy. Jewels gives her water. For a second I was scared because I was like, Oh my God, like what if he got enchanted by the evil white lady and you know she's about to get taken out or something kidnapped or whatever. But it doesn't seem like that's the case. But something about him feels a little off, because when she enchanted everybody in the room, he was looking around like he was like. Everybody else was like, still, But he was looking around. And I was like, oh, God. Like, did she not fully enchant this man like, oh, God, you know, but he's like, oh, you know, where are you from? Where are you from? He's like, I'm from, you know, He tells her that he's from New Orleans. She also says that she's from New Orleans, but she doesn't remember what part. So I'm guessing she was born there but was raised in Miami. Oh, and that's when we also learned that her name is. Her full name is Angelique. Which is like so pretty, you know, they all have such pretty names. It's like the neurologist

to me is like, Oh my God, I can't wait till like, you know, go live, you know? Well right now after I finish this episode, recap and do the math on their names. Though I don't know Angelique's or slash Gigi's last name. So but we're still gonna, we're still gonna calculate her name.

But essentially, yeah, so then Kyle comes up. I kind of recapped the entire episode for this one cuz I was just like so shocked by what happened. But yeah, so Kyle picks her up and he's staying this dude down like they having a stare down like. *** *** in that room. OK, like they just stay each other down. And I was like, oh God, like what's about to happen? What's about to pop off? But nothing pops off. He just drives Gigi off. Which also OK, Gigi, I'm not saying you got to date this man because you don't owe him a partner, but he over here picking you up after the party. Chilling at your career, everybody seem to think he's your boyfriend. Girl, you're doing something to make this man think he's your boyfriend.

And I don't know how cool that is. I don't know how cool that is. I have a weird thing about people kind of leading people on like that. But then again, she's not leading him on. She is telling him we're just going to be friends, we're just going to be friends. So she's not completely leading him on, but she is kind of doing a bunch of **** that, you know, it's kind of maybe it's up to him to just walk away. That might be what need to happen because otherwise, dude, you don't, you don't seem like you're gonna get what you're looking for from Gigi because she don't seem to want to give it. So yeah, that is episode 4 that's recapping episode 4. So now I'm gonna get into some questions that I have written, some guiding questions that I ask myself each episode and also. I'm going to calculate their names and I'm going to go into the numerology of the show. I'm not gonna go too deep, but I'm gonna go deep enough to where I can kind of explain certain concepts in numerology with the show. So yeah.

Mental health and magic guiding questions.

So just as suggested, we are going to go over some guiding questions that I've written. I have these for each of the episodes of like a show or like for a movie. These are just general questions to help me kind of go over the content. So I'm just going to read out the questions and then I'm going to dive into it. How are mental conditions handled in the work? So as we've recapped each episode, I've talked a little bit about the mental health conditions of each of the women. I believe that this show shows mental health and like a real light. And by real light, realistic light, I mean that it's not dramatized. It's shown in a way that I think one might use one another person's mental health. If they were off screen in real life, right where there's little moments that kind of show and then like highlight where that person is mentally, but it's not. Again, it's not dramatized. So for example, with Aleha in her like kind of biting tone with her friends, her frustration at work, that's kind of shown. She doesn't just like. Toss everything around in the room when the computer goes down, or she doesn't just start screaming at her friends for no reason. Not saying that none of those could happen, because if someone's having a mental health breakdown, those things

are very possible. However, I think it's shown that OK, this is a resilient person who also probably bottles things up inside, and so realistically, she probably isn't going to be, you know, very. You know, open or externalizing her emotions and so, but we do see it in little moments where she tells her boss to choke and you know, she gets really frustrated and things like that. Those moments kind of show where she is mentally and kind of shows that she's probably pretty spent in terms of Yaya. We also see where she is mentally.

I think the show also treats these things as real issues. When we see ya, ya decide to meditate because the fact that they're providing a solution to an issue shows that they believe that it is an issue and that this isn't just characters going, you know, characters dealing with an obstacle. Like, in a very generic way. But like, no, this is like a real issue. You know? She's dealing with feelings of inadequacy. And struggling to channel herself in a way that allows her to go about her day-to-day in a way that's productive. So here's a solution. And then Gigi. We don't necessarily see a solution with Gigi. Well, besides don't drink alcohol, which also for those that don't know, alcohol is a downer, meaning that like it can, it's a depressant. It can cause failings of depression and kind of lower one's mood. So that's like one of the first things I had to learn when I got diagnosed with bipolar disorder was that my alcohol consumption had to be very it's advised that you don't drink at all if you have bipolar disorder, but you know, little to no alcohol basically. And so. And they're very explicit. Even though it's implied that these characters have mental health conditions,

I'm not saying that they have like a mental health condition. Like, oh, Gigi has this condition and the audio has this condition. By mental health condition, I mean like, they're having mental health issues, like they're going through stuff and everybody goes through stuff. So I think. That's why even though it's implied, it's still quite obvious that they're dealing with stuff like if if they were to have a mental health condition, that would be implied. But the fact that they have mental health issues in general, that is explicit.

The characters that they, you know, the society that the characters live in. It seems like, you know, we don't really get to see many moments of people talking about neurodiversity. I really won't go that far of saying like, Oh yeah, like they treat neuro diversity as like this, like as a good thing or bad thing, because we just don't know.

But we do see the priestess say that, you know, she needs to take Gigi specifically needs to take care of her body

and so. There seems to be, again, some acknowledgement on the real world and they end the magical world, that mental health or like physical health is important to keep up

the characters, the way they interact with each other. When it comes to their mental health, I think it's also realistic because there's not, again, a dramatized moment. They're like, what's going on, What's happening, which? Again, these dramatized moments can happen in real life, but we're seeing the daytoday lives of these women, right?

So we're probably not going to get a bunch of dramatized moments. They just kind of respond in kind. Like when, when, when Aleha is like, oh, at least I have a job that I will not even at least have a job, but I have a job where I have to answer to people. Or she says something like that. The, the other two women are like, OK, you know, like, even though that could have been a moment where they could have dramatized and been like, well, what's going on? What's going on, Aleja? Instead, we see Yaya text Aleja and go like, hey, like, hey, what's going on? You want to talk about it? Which I think is realistic amongst friends, right?

And Gigi's, like, yeah, sure, yeah, you know. She's my, yeah, sure girl. She's like, yeah, sure. We got to talk to Aleja, you know, about how she's feeling, which again is realistic I think.

And the way that the characters, you know, interact with their mental health, they I'm reading off of a screen in terms of their like, in terms of questions.

They

each kind of deal with it differently because. Aleha is kind of like, I'm gonna work it away, you know? Cue, cue that Solange song. You know, I tried to work it away. I don't. I don't think she actually says that. I can't remember the lyrics of that song, even though I love that song. But it reminded me think of that song, which, you know, if they were able to use, like, you know that song up in that for Aleha. I know. Each of the characters, by the way, have their own playlist. That song should have been for Aleja, because yeah,

but just replace everything that Solange says with work,

ya ya. I think handles it the most healthily because she doesn't project onto other people. Though she does get frustrated with the priestess, which is. Human and I think allowable. It's OK to be upset with people you know, especially if those people are asking you for things and not really asking you how you're feeling. You know I think that that is very I really sympathize with ya ya on that because that's a real that's that sucks. You know I think anybody could look at that and be like yeah that's not cool

but she meditates. She tries her best to to work it out you know. Gigi, I think at all the three of them kind of handles it the least healthiest. Only because not saying that being a workaholic is healthy either. But from personal experience, like drowning yourself in alcohol and sex and all that, it's like, again, I think that I think Cranes in the Sky, that's the song Cranes in the Sky by Solange could also apply to Gigi too, but I think that Gigi hasn't had her Cranes in the Sky moments. I think Alley is more likely to have her cranes in the Sky moment than Gigi. I don't know, just because Gigi's got that hard show.

So yeah, like, and the factors that come into play when it comes to how mental health conditions are treated, you know, there aren't too many shifts. Like we don't see any like drastic shifts. Like they're not like taken to another world where people treatments have conditions in a completely different way. Even though there's magic they're still in the physical material you know world that we know of. So there hasn't been too many shifts

and so question two or how powers powers and abilities handled in the work. So I've kind of. Gone over this a little bit again, but basically the powers are explicit.

They're very explicit, which I think needed to happen for the work to make sense, because otherwise it probably wouldn't have translated well

in this society. Obviously. Like, it's the it's placed in the world that we live in, like right now and so. As far as most people are concerned, powers and abilities don't exist. The priestess notes to Gigi Angelique that she can't show her powers in front of mortals, and so it's. I guess you could say that it's been talked about before, right? Whether they should show their powers or not, they've probably had issues with people showing their powers before.

This is assuming that there's other people who've had powers right for them to be able to even discuss that they shouldn't be doing this.

And so as far as we know, mortals are oblivious. We are oblivious to these powers, but but we can see these powers potentially because the priest says don't show your powers. So you know.

We don't know if there's an entire magical society in terms of like a group of people. We don't know if there's an entire realm or dimension where magic exists and openly. But we do know that there have been multiple people before with powers, because as a priestess says, they are coming from centuries of magic in their they have centuries of magic in their blood. So we're assuming that also Gigi's from New Orleans, so. You know anything about New Orleans, you know it's kind of like it's a magic capital and so I wonder if that's going to come into play farther down in the story.

And you know again in terms of factors that impact our abilities are treated

if there's any shifts, the only shifts we see with that is. Are the women themselves how they handle the Powers? Because in the beginning, in the first episode, they're all freaking out. Ali at this point still does not believe Gigi's like I'm with it. Let me do whatever I want and ya ya's like I'm just trying to find some Peace of Mind. So that's where we see the shifts because ya, ya at first is very open. I don't know if ya ya's open at this point because she's tired. So Gigi at this point seems to be the most open to it, but she's also using it in a way that's not necessarily the most healthy.

Our powers, abilities, constant, sporadic, are non existent on screen. So

I would say they're sporadic because it's not like they're constantly using their powers, they're using them at different little moments, but they are existing on existing on the screen. And then what is the relationship between mental health conditions and magic abilities? Slash abilities in the work.

So I would say that they are quite

symbiotic, slightly parasitic. And the only reason why I call it parasitic is because maybe parasitic is not the right word, but essentially.

For example, with Gigi, her needs, like her mental health is directly tied to how she uses her powers, right? Like she's trying to sex it away, she's trying to drink it away, she's trying to, you know, argue it away. And in those moments, she's using her powers. Gigi, I would say, uses her powers the most out of everybody by choice because ya, ya doesn't necessarily use her powers by choice.

Ali uses her powers by choice, but doesn't believe that she used powers, which I find to be really interesting. She probably just thought, oh, you know, like she said in her episode that it was just all a coincidence. It was just all a coincidence, you know, So we see that

and so with Ali. Valley's relationship between her mental health and magic.

I would say it's quite symbiotic when she uses it to tell the boss the choke, right? Like her needs kind of play. They kind of work together. Ya ya, I would say is the one that has a parasitic relationship with her powers only because not saying that Yaya herself would use it as parasitic, but like it's parasitic in the way that like it drains her.

Because she can't control it. I think once Y'all learns how to control it, she probably will have a more symbiotic relationship with her powers.

So who you know, who knows? But so far that's kind of where we are with that.

And when was the movie show slash show published?

The show came out in 2019 and has seven episodes,

and then there were a couple episodes also made in 2020. So episodes five through seven were made in 2020 according to the IMD IMDb. I keep on IMDb instead of IMDb.

So yeah, it came up pretty, came up before Brujas, which I find to be interesting. I always wish that it became a larger series because I really enjoyed it

and the colors are just amazing, which we can go into too.

The numerology.